ARCADE is a domain and technology independent architectural description framework for software intensive systems.

ARCADE was created to assist in creating, understanding, and describing architecture of software systems. An architectural description of a software system makes it easier for software developers to:

• Understand the architecture of an existing system
• Maintain architectural consistency of a system during development and maintenance
• Integrate other systems with the described system

The ARCADE framework can assist the software architects in creating the architecture of a new system, in documenting the architecture of an existing system, and in specializing the framework for a specific domain or application type. It assists the architect with document structure and content, how to handle quality related concerns, and how to design for reusability and maintainability.